I recently did my first Lightning talk at my local PerlMongers group (to.pm) on Moose::CAP.

Moose::CAP was my attempt to port CGI::Application (a lightweight webapp Framework) to the Moose object system. It was really just an exercise for me to get to know Moose.

Obviously, if I ever chose to release this on CPAN I’d have to rename it (folk don’t like you using their namespace) but the name was too good to pass up. As of this writing, I’ve got Moose::CAP passing CGI::Application’s test suite!

I saw a link posted on dzone a few weeks back about “20+ Tools for Perl Development” and I thought it was horrid. The resources link were not all bad but I think most were. It occurred to me I could make a better list despite the fact that I hate “top ten” type lists.

Just getting started in Perl? These are the places you must go. Got suggestions as to what should and should not be on here? Let me know! I don’t claim to be a guru. This is what I use / have used.

Perlmonks — This is the Perl community in a nutshell. Have a question? If you have a question (and you’ve read the documentation pertaining to what you’re doing) go here. The people that literally wrote the books on Perl can help you here. Show that you’re trying to help yourself with code samples and you’ll find what you need. Read a bit about the place before you start posting willy nilly.

CPAN — The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. This is one, if not the, strength of Perl. Perl is extensible through modules (which may or may not be OO) and you’ve find them all at CPAN. Need a web framework? Something to write Excel files? Database driver? XML Parser? All the freely available modules are here. Contribute your own modules!

Perl 5 Wiki — This is a relatively new resource but it is growing. Some of the best pages, in my opinion, are:

Mistakes to avoid — A series of pages and links to other sites that details common pitfalls in Perl.

Recommended CPAN Modules — Sometimes you’ll find on CPAN a variety of modules that do the same thing or at least something similar. Some modules are often favoured over another and this will help you pick the best module for the job.

People of Perl — Curious as to who the big guns in Perl are? This is your resource. You’ll find a heck of a lot of them at Perlmonks… and their perlmonk name is in here too!

Presentations and Papers — There’s a variety of conventions that happen over the course of the year and a number of speakers put the slides from the presentations up for free. This page will show you where to find them. These presentations will introduce you to new modules, best practices, advanced Perl idioms or maybe it’ll just help you understand something that you’ve had trouble grasping.

Perl.org — This is a sort of “start page” for Perl. This place tells you where to go and what to see. I can’t say I visit this page much anymore, but it’s a good start point for a Perl newbie.

Perl Foundation — This is the non-profit organization that handles grants and the advancement of Perl.

Perl.com — This is O’Reilly’s base page for Perl. Excellent articles pop up here from the tops in the field. Some great tutorials on using various modules or accomplishing specific tasks.

Columns by Randal Schwartz — Randal (known as merlyn on Perlmonks) is a highly respected member of the Perl Community and has written many books and articles a number of magazines. I’ve found his articles very helpful in getting my head around more complicated Perl idioms and how best to use various modules. There’s a tonne of these articles. Essential reading.

use.perl.org — The big boy of Perl blogs. What you’ll find here is announcements of conventions, meetings and major module releases.

Planet Perl — This is actually an amalgam blog with items contributed by Perl developers the world over. It’s not always directly Perl, but it’s really key in keeping up with what’s going on in the community. There’s often duplication between this and use.perl.org and PerlBuzz, but it’s easy to skip what you’ve seen.

PerlBuzz — This is a relatively new blog but I like it. It keeps you up on some developments in the Perl world that may not be covered as much elsewhere. Feels more like a “news” kinda site than a blog as opposed to use.perl. A great addition to the Perl community.

CPAN Watch — Another blog from the Perl Buzz crew but it’s focus is about drawing attention to new modules and new release on CPAN. CPAN is awfully big so it’s another way to have some of the more interesting developments brought to your attention.

Perl Advent Calendar Archives — Every year an Advent Calendar is put up on the web with little Perl articles about various practices and modules. There’s plenty of gems in there on how to do any number of things… and it’s a lot of fun to see these things even if there’s no chocolate.

jobs.perl.org — Looking for a job doing Perl? This is the place to go. Forget the other job sites. Go here. Really. My last two jobs have come from here and the listings are from all over the world.

EPIC — This is an addon to the free java-based Eclipse IDE for Perl development. I like Eclipse. I love EPIC.

That should keep you going for a while.

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Perl Modules

This is really just a list of modules that I MUST learn about and/or look into and/or blog about.